Bushkill To Modify Zoning Ordinance On Cemetery Buffer

An amendment to the Bushkill Township zoning ordinance soon may put an end to restrictive buffer requirements for cemeteries, a plan that officers of the Bushkill Methodist Episcopal Cemetery welcome.

The Bushkill M.E. Cemetery Corp. recently acquired more than 3 acres to expand its cemetery at Church Road and Bushkill Drive. However, plans to develop the land went under last month, when the Zoning Hearing Board denied a special exception that would have allowed construction of an interior road around the cemetery.

The problem, the board determined, was that the road could not be placed in the 50-yard buffer area between the cemetery property and surrounding properties as required by the zoning ordinance. In addition, the ordinance does not allow anything, including graves, to be putless than 10 feet on either side of the road.

Cemetery Treasurer Marcus Yeakel approached the supervisors early this month and asked them to waive the requirement.

Supervisors do not have the authority to waive zoning restrictions, and Yeakel was quickly told that, unless he appealed the zoning board's decision in court, his options had expired.

But when Yeakel asked about the reasoning behind the requirements, which he said were more restrictive than those in other municipalities, supervisors were stumped.

Noting that buffer requirements usually are included to limit such things as noise and aesthetic disturbances between properties, the supervisors also questioned the origin of the requirements. They agreed to contact Urban Research & Development Corp., a Bethlehem consulting firm, to determine if the requirements were indeed too restrictive.

On Thursday, township Secretary-Treasurer Aaron Hook reported that Urban Research had determined the 50-foot buffer requirement was too restrictive, noting that other area municipalities had less restrictive requirements or no requirements at all.

Urban Research recommended the buffer be reduced or eliminated, and replaced with a yard requirement with specific exceptions for cemeteries.

Yeakel said a 20-foot yard requirement in which an interior driveway would be permitted would be adequate as long as graves could be placed closer than 10 feet from the driveway, adding that they had to be a minimum of 6 inches from the curb.

Supervisors agreed with the 20-foot yard requirement, and requested that the driveway be 10 feet across. They also asked Yeakel if 1 foot on either side of the driveway would be an adequate requirement for placing graves.

"We can live with that," Yeakel said, adding that it is a major improvement over the 10-foot limit in the existing ordinance, which wastes the equivalent of three grave lengths.

Supervisors directed solicitor Gary Asteak to draft appropriate language to amend the zoning ordinance, and told Yeakel it probably would be several months before the amendment could be passed.

Yeakel seemed pleased at the outcome, but a little dejected about the timetable. "We have no place to put people," he said, prompting Asteak to quip that it is "a good reason to stay alive."